"It's true. The Force...The Jedi...All of it." - Han Solo

One shot that caught our collective imaginations in the trailers for The Force Awakens was someone handing Anakin's Lightsaber to someone else. It caused a great deal of debate, but finally we all decided that it was Leia being handed the weapon by Maz Kanata. Then it gets cut from the final edit...

I've spent hours chatting about this scene on podcasts and writing about my theory on both MGFN and here at TalkStarWars.co.uk. The scene formed the spine of my theorised version if the movie. I speculated that Kylo Ren would secretly get the weapon to Maz Kanata and watch carefully, from the shadows, as it made its way to Leia, and that Leia would eventually decide to send the weapon via Poe Dameron to Jakku, where Han Solo was camped out whilst smuggling livestock. The idea was that Han knew the whereabouts of Luke Skywalker and would take the weapon to him with Kylo Ren in pursuit. The resulting confrontation would reveal connections, resulting in the sad death of a series regular and set up the Luke Vs Kylo nature of the sequels. All that from a shot that would eventually end up on the cutting room floor. See how deadly this speculation game is?

So why did this scene get cut? J.J. Abrams has spoken to Entertainment Weekly:

As much as you try to kick the tires and write and shoot only what is necessary — no one wants to waste anyone’s time — when you’re in the editing room you realize, for instance, that introducing the character there actually diminishes their power. Or, giving that information actually distracts you from what you should be concentrating on. Or, having that moment happen concurrent with that moment actually gets in the way of both — things like that.

— J.J. Abrams

What about the Maz Kanata scene specifically?

That was a scene actually filmed, but we took out. At one point, Maz used to continue along with the characters back to the Resistance base, but we realized that she really had nothing to do there of value, except to be sitting around.Lupita did film scenes on set for that sequence, but it felt it unnecessary.

— J.J. Abrams

Finally J.J. Abrams had this comment about the trailer featuring the cut scene:

The moment was nice and the people who cut the trailer didn’t give a s–t! I’m kidding.

— J.J. Abrams

I have to say the final cut of The Force Awakens was spectacular and I am thrilled that my speculation was nowhere near accurate. I will certainly remember this scene when we start to get footage from Rogue One in the coming weeks and months.